The automaker is now bigger than Ford in market cap. Tesla was even on the verge of surpassing GM in market cap on Tuesday. It's a big deal for a company that has sought to contend with traditional car manufacturers.

Not too long ago, many doubted Tesla's ability to survive producing electric vehicles. Fast forward to 2017, and Tesla is advancing autonomous tech, producing two luxury cars, selling commercial batteries on a mass scale, and about to foray into solar installations.

CEO Elon Musk has transformed Tesla from a small startup in Palo Alto, California, into an enviable competitor in the auto industry.

But as Musk said on Twitter, Tesla's market-cap growth says more about where people see the company heading than its past accomplishments. And Tesla's next big move could also be its greatest weakness going forward: the launch of the Model 3, its first mass-market sedan priced at $35,000 before federal tax incentives.

SUVs are currently the most lucrative segment in the auto industry. Both compact and mid-size crossover SUVs account for 35% of all cars and trucks sold in the United States. (It's why companies looking to enter the electric-car space are starting with an electric SUV.)

Even Tesla is experiencing that uptick in SUV demand — the company delivered roughly the same number of Model X SUVs (11,550) as it did its more traditionally popular Model S sedans (13,450) in the first quarter.

Couple that with the fact that it's much harder to generate a profit on a mass-market sedan, and you can see how Tesla could have a problem. Tesla is entering a market that isn't growing and could take a greater toll on its bottom line.

The Tesla Model 3. REUTERS/Joe White/File Photo

The Model 3 will surely be a hit when it rolls off the assembly line at the end of this year — after all, Tesla already has sold about 400,000 of the electric cars.

But it's a matter of what happens when that initial surge of excitement disappears. Can Tesla truly handle the transition from luxury to consumer-friendly?

It doesn't help that Tesla generally has struggled to meet its delivery goals because of production issues. The Model S was supposed to roll out in 2010 but was delayed to mid-2011. The Model X suffered three years of delays.

"We were in production hell," Musk said on the company's second-quarter 2016 earnings call. "We climbed out of hell in June."

But Musk is preparing accordingly to ensure the Model 3 launch goes off without any hiccups. In November, Tesla bought a German automation company to help speed up assembly-line production. Tesla also temporarily shut down its factory in Fremont, California, in February to prepare it for Model 3 production.

Tesla's market-cap valuation signals a huge vote of confidence in the company. Musk will have to seamlessly transition into the mass-market space — not just in the first year, but in the long run — to meet those expectations.

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